Colombia’s Marxist President Threatens to Cut Ties with Israel if It Keeps Attacking Hamas

Colombia’s far-left President Gustavo Petro threatened to cut ties with Israel on Tuesday if it does not comply with a non-binding resolution that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed this week demanding an immediate halt in the campaign against the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas.

The incident marks the second time the Colombian president has threatened to cut ties with Israel due to its self-defense operations against Hamas following the genocidal terrorists’ invasion of the country on October 7, in which Hamas jihadists killed an estimated 1,200 people.

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The non-binding ceasefire resolution demands Israel halt its self-defense operations against Hamas until April 9, 2024, the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The UNSC also urged Hamas to release all of the hostages still in its control after the mass abductions of October 7.

Petro, a former member of the Marxist M-19 guerrilla and Colombia’s first leftist president ever, made the threat through his social media account on Tuesday morning.

“If Israel does not comply with the UN ceasefire resolution we will break diplomatic relations with Israel,” Petro’s message read.

Colombia and Israel have historically maintained friendly diplomatic relations since 1957. Israel has been a longstanding supplier of security-related equipment and technology to Colombia, which the South American nation has employed in its decades-long fight against the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN) terrorist organizations, as well as other guerrilla groups, such as M19.

Israel also provided technical advisory and assistance to Colombia for the design and manufacture of the Colombian-made Arpía III and Arpía IV combat helicopters.

Petro’s pro-Hamas stances have significantly damaged bilateral relations. Petro, much like his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza, Hamas’s stronghold.

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Shortly after the October 7 terrorist attack, Petro, in a series of posts published on his personal Twitter account, compared Israel to Nazi Germany and accused it of turning Gaza into a concentration camp to the likes of Auschwitz. Petro also failed to condemn Hamas for its heinous terrorist actions against Israel.

“If I had lived in Germany in 1933 I would have fought on the side of the Jews and if I had lived in Palestine in 1948 I would have fought on the Palestinian side,” Petro wrote at the time. “Now the neo-Nazis want the destruction of the Palestinian people, freedom and culture. Now the democrats and progressives want peace and freedom for the Israeli and Palestinian people.”

Israel condemned Petro’s antisemitic comparisons and halted security exports to Colombia in October. Petro retaliated by threatening to have Colombia cut ties with Israel but never made good on the threat.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded to Petro’s latest comments in a Spanish-language message posted on his social media accounts.

“The support of the President of Colombia to Hamas murderers who massacred and committed heinous sex crimes against babies, women, and adults is a disgrace to the Colombian people,” the message read. “Israel will continue to protect its citizens and will not yield to any pressure or threat.”

Petro indirectly responded to Katz in a subsequent post, reading, “Colombia does not support genocides. Period.”

Petro claimed during an official event on March 20 that the Marxist M19 guerrilla that he was part of in his youth had some of his members train with pro-Palestine paramilitary forces in Libya, identifying his once close friend Enán Lora Mendoza as one of the M19 members who received such training. Petro also asserted that both groups had “the same root.”

“Enán Lora, to know stories, trained militarily with M19 in the deserts of the Sahara in Libya,” Petro said. “He trained with the militants and fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organization.”

“Why did we go there under the stars to play guitars? Next to the Polisario Front, which I recognized,” he continued. “Arabs fighting for their nation, for their homeland, against injustice. Look at what is happening today in Palestine. Their homeland that was taken away from them.”

Petro also asserted that M19 had fought with the Palestine Liberation Organization and other groups.

“We also want to have a homeland. That is why the M-19, in stories not known, was in the deserts of the Sahara and was side by side with the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Polisario Front, and the SWAPO,” he claimed. “And, although they may not like it, of the African National Congress, which was Nelson Mandela’s guerrilla. The M19 fought with Nelson Mandela for freedom.”

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.